Ellery Cleveland, a registered nurse working for Lift Community Service’s injectable Opioid Agonist Treatment (iOAT) program, has been recognized by the BC Centre on Substance Use (BCCSU) for her outstanding contributions to implementing substance use care in the province.
Cleveland was presented with the BCCSU’s interdisciplinary clinical excellence award at its recent provincial conference, where researchers, health-care professionals and service providers from across BC met to review emerging substance use research and best practices.
The annual award is presented to a clinician who has demonstrated exemplary leadership supporting the implementation of evidence-based practice, and who champions substance use care education and training.
“We are so proud that Ellery was selected from across the province to receive this award,” stated Lift executive director Stuart Clark. “The recognition is well-deserved. Ellery is extremely dedicated to furthering research and knowledge-sharing of substance use care and is an incredible advocate and model for people who use substances to be treated with compassion and dignity.”
Cleveland started her career in harm reduction at AIDS Vancouver Island in 2010 as a volunteer, then worked as a nurse at Insite, North America’s first sanctioned safe injection site located in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. After moving to the qathet region in 2019, she worked with Vancouver Coastal Health’s intensive case management team, before joining Lift in 2021.
Cleveland was instrumental in working with Lift and other community partners to establish the community’s iOAT program, where nurses dispense a prescribed alternative to opioids in a community setting, according to a media release. She is currently the clinical lead for the program.
“Ellery’s knowledge and experience was instrumental to getting this program established,” stated Kathryn Colby, community development manager for Lift, and the lead for the qathet Community Action Team that coordinates the region’s response to the toxic drug supply crisis. “She helped qathet region become the first community in a remote coastal setting to offer this type of evidence-based substance use treatment.”
Cleveland has demonstrated a commitment to research and clinical knowledge advancement through an addiction nurse fellowship with the BCSSU in 2021, according to the release. Locally, she’s been key to coordinating a research study aimed at generating data on rural substance use to bring more resources to the community.
Increasingly recognized as a leader in overdose response throughout the province, Cleveland was recently invited to co-author a provincial toolkit on nurse-assisted injection support.
“The work she does is largely unseen by the community, but she is an incredible asset – not just to Lift and to the people she supports daily, but to the community and province,” stated Clark. “She’s a true leader in the growing field of substance use care, and we are so happy to be able to celebrate her contributions today.”
